Lesson One: “The pros are not really that good.” Dalla states that
it is a widely held perception that many of the top names in Poker are
unbeatable. He believes that this is simply not true and that many tournament
pros, maybe even the majority, can’t beat cash games and are “big contributors”
when they sit down in live games. Moreover, every day in every single major
tournament, well-know pros make bad decisions and bust out, and he could fill a
book with some of the terrible plays he has witnesses by these so-called
“great” players.

Lesson Two: “Tournaments are a very tough way to make a living.” Dalla
believes that playing tournament poker is even tougher than playing cash
poker, and in addition, tournament players must play their own travel, hotel
and entry fee expenses, which can be considerable. He mentions that local
cash game and online pros have enormous advantages over their tournament
counterparts.

Lesson Three: “Some tournament ‘professionals’ are just rich
people who have enough cash reserves to sustain the appearance of being
successful.” Further, according to Dalla, the numbers of players
who earn a living playing tournament poker is very small and although many of
these players seem to be winners, at the end of each year have actually lost
money.

Lesson Four: “Online poker is not rigged.” Although he agrees there is
some dispute that the online poker industry is not doing enough to pursue
cheaters and colluders, the games themselves are not rigged. The majority of
online card rooms distribute cards randomly and have no inherent objectives
to cheat players. Further, the perception of ‘bad beats’ is exaggerated
because the games run so much faster, and so many more hands are played in a
relatively shorter period of time. This gives the appearance of encountering
more ‘bad beats’ than one would experience in ‘brick and mortar’
establishments.